Low Ballers

P

Pete

New member
Here is the classic low baller for you. It's prime season around here. Lots of work for all.. But a business called Shields. They are running there normal prices for two stories for $99.00 now thats a classic. There is others out there. Like Budget who is doing two stories for 125 cedar at that. You got to love it.. I guess you dont want to make money. Of course spraying bleach on a house with your $300 pressure washer, with no insurance and license. Under the table money, no taxes for you. I bet you are making a profit.... : ) Bleach only cost 3.67 at depot. Oh well I'm irritated with this whole low balling crap. Just going to start turning them into the state for not having business license and the EPA for rinsing there NaOH mixed with there bleach that turns to saltwater after 18-23 seconds from the O2.
 
Pete,
I guess you are pretty upset about this since you posted the same message on three boards.
There will always be people out there doing this type of service.
Just remember that their poor quality of work will catch up with them sooner or latter. I think most customers realize you get what you pay for if we do the proper sell to them. There will always be work for people who do quality work.

Stay dry!
 
I had a guy going around offering to do any work for 20% less than the last invoice, He managed to hang around for a couple of years, he eventually went belly up. Funny thing is from what I hear he did good work at first, but he couldn't afford to pay to get good help. I found out he was hiring people that I had fired for poor performance.
 
I went one town over to do an estimate on a huge house. I was thinking in the $300 range and even thought that was kinda low. This house went 30 feet high in most areas. I figured I would do it in about 6 hours. Before I could give her the estimate she asked if I could do it for under $100. I was shocked. She said some guy said he would borrow a big ladder from his brother in law and wash her house for $100. If it takes him 6 hours to do it that would be $16.67 an hour. This guy has an ad in the newspaper and an ad in the yellow pages. I just don't know how he does it. Nobody cares about insurance. They just go with the lowest price. I was thinking about whenever I get crappy jobs that I will bid them low and hire him to do it and make a little profit from him. Then I thought about it and I don't want him doing crappy work under my name.
 
That already had a rock bottom price and still called you to see if you could beat it.
There will always be people like that, therefore there will always be somebody with some time on his hands (i.e. the lowballer) who figures "I have this little pressure washer and a hundred bucks is more than I make at my regular job in a day" hell yes I clean your house for $100 bucks.
 
I know we have all had the same situation at one time or another. Probably my best story was a guy that constantly under bid me and I posed the question to a customer once that if the other contractor was doing the job for that cheap, what else did he walk away with after the job was done? I was cleaning shops. Sure enough a few months later they had gallons of anti-freeze, oil, tools, and finally an electric bike that mysteriously dissapeared. They just hadn't bothered to look before. Never happened in the 5 years on my watch..... It was sweet justice..... The guy still hasn't gone away entirely, but no one trusts him anymore.
 
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